Your Dissertation Doesn’t Need Another 47 Pages. It Needs a Point.

PhD candidates often struggle to meet minimum chapter page counts set by their chairs or advisors. And that struggle is real. You know the feeling: staring at the blinking cursor in a Word document as your brain flatlines and you feel like writing another sentence could literally end you.

BUT, for every student trying to squeeze one. more. word. onto a page, there’s another who writes and writes… Endlessly stacking up pages like their lives depend on it. And while their frenzy may produce impressive word counts, they’re actually making very little progress. Because here’s the truth: A longer dissertation isn’t necessarily a better dissertation.

Sometimes it’s just a longer dissertation.

I’ve worked with many clients who have sent me voluminous drafts to review, and usually, I spot at least one of the following:

1. 1. Redundancy. Trying to generate more content, the writer ends up repeating themselves. A lot.
   2. Excessive wordiness. The writer uses 25 words to say something they could say in 5. Example: “It is important to note that the findings of the present research study appear to suggest the possibility that participants experienced challenges related to communication.” versus “Participants reported challenges with communication.”
   3. Poor organization. When a chapter is poorly organized, the writer can wander from point to point, adding endless content without ever arriving anywhere.
   4. Google rabbit holes. Speaking of wandering, without a clear objective for each section of a chapter (especially that damn literature review), it’s very easy to fall down research rabbit holes (those tunnels deep in the belly of Google Scholar that begin to convince you a 2008 article on agricultural economics in rural Peru is essential to your study on intersectionality).
   5. AI-generated content. Phew. This one. I am by no means anti-AI, and I believe there are wonderful ways to leverage it in your writing. But relying on AI to generate content is a mistake for so many reasons that it deserves its own post. But for our purposes here, AI content can end up reading like word salad. Can it give you a bunch of pages? Yup. Do those pages advance your argument? Not really.

• • Start with an outline. A real one. I know outlines aren’t sexy, but man, will they save you time and energy. Think of an outline as a living document that’s allowed to evolve and change as you work. You may plan a subsection in your literature review and later realize there’s not enough relevant literature to support it. But! During your search, you identify a different subsection to include, one with a ton of scholarship. An outline will also help you make sure all your sections fit together. Writing without an outline is like trying to navigate to an unknown place without a map—you’ll get somewhere, but probably not where you intended.

• • Make sure every paragraph has a job. Think of unnecessary words and paragraphs as waste. Every paragraph should contribute to the whole and maintain a logical flow of ideas. If the reader comes to a paragraph and suddenly feels lost or confused… that’s not good. You’re writing a dissertation, not a suspense novel

• • Edit ruthlessly. I took a legal writing class in college with a professor who mercilessly taught me to edit my writing down. I was one of those wordy students who drove her nuts, and she was sure to let me know it. After she finished drawing red lines and big X’s on words, sentences, and entire paragraphs I’d proudly written, she usually reduced my essays by about 50%. Look for patterns of wordiness in your own writing. Academic writing is very different from literary prose, where paragraph-length sentences can feel beautiful and stylistic. Strong academic writing is as precise and concise as possible. If it can be said in 5 words, don’t use 25.

• • Use AI as a tool, not your ghostwriter. There are great ways to use AI in your writing. For example, to help you generate an outline. To brainstorm ideas. To scan abstracts for relevance. To check your grammar. It can help you track and organize your sources, compare your citations against your references, and even ensure your verb tense is consistent.* However, it is not your writer. Listen, I know it’s tempting. AI can write massive amounts of content in seconds. But that content may be irrelevant, misattribute statements to sources, or even fabricate sources entirely. Plus, using AI as your ghostwriter can undermine your command of your own research.

And that? That’s a problem. Especially around defense time.

 Wrap this up already, Jessica!

Alright, alright. Here’s the point: Your dissertation isn’t a competition to see who can produce the most pages. It’s an opportunity to demonstrate that you can think critically, conduct meaningful research, and communicate your findings clearly.

Stop counting words. Start making them count.

And if you’re drowning in a sea of your own prose, Dissertation Angels can help. Whether you need a fresh set of eyes to identify unnecessary content, help organizing your chapters, or professional editing to tighten your writing, I’m here to help you turn that mountain of words into a dissertation that makes sense.

* Always make sure your AI use complies with your school’s AI policies.